Funding Your Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences: A Practical Guide to Grant and Fellowship Proposals

215 Pages·2017·1.189 MB·English

by  Barbara Walker, Holly Unruh

FUNDING YOUR RESEARCH
IN THE HUMANITIES AND
SOCIAL SCIENCES
Grants and fellowships are increasingly essential to an academic career, and competi-
tion over federal and foundation funding is fi ercer than ever. Yet there has hitherto
been little training available for this genre of writing.
Funding Your Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences demystifi es the process
of writing winning grant proposals in the humanities and social sciences. Offering
practical guidance, step-by-step instructions, and examples of successful proposals,
Walker and Unruh outline the best practices to crack the proposal writing code.
They reveal the most common peeves of proposal reviewers and offer advice on
how to avoid frequent problem areas in conceptualizing and crafting a research
proposal in the humanities and social sciences. Contributions from agency and
foundation program offi cers offer the perspective from the other side of the pro-
posal submission portal, and new research funding trends, including crowdfunding
and public scholarship, are also covered.
This book is essential reading for all those involved in preparing funding applications.
Graduate students, research administrators, early career faculty members, and tenured
professors alike will gain new and effective strategies to write successful applications.
Barbara L. E. Walker is the Director of Research Development for the Social Sci-
ences at the University of California Santa Barbara, USA, where she is also Special
Assistant to the Executive Vice Chancellor for Diversity Initiatives. Walker was a
founding Board Member of the National Organization of Research Development
Professionals (NORDP).
Holly E. Unruh is the Associate Director of the Undergraduate Research Oppor-
tunities Center at California State University, Monterey Bay, USA. She previously
served as the founding Associate Director of the University of California Institute
for Research in the Arts, and Associate Director of the University of California
Santa Barbara Interdisciplinary Humanities Center.

FUNDING YOUR
RESEARCH IN THE
HUMANITIES AND
SOCIAL SCIENCES
A Practical Guide to Grant
and Fellowship Proposals
Barbara L. E. Walker and Holly E. Unruh
First published 2018
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2018 Taylor & Francis
The right of Barbara L. E. Walker and Holly E. Unruh to be identifi ed as
authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections
77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
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Trademark notice : Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identifi cation and explanation
without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-1-61132-319-1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-61132-320-7 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-15903-4 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
CONTENTS
List of Figures vii
List of Tables viii
List of Boxes ix
Glossary of Acronyms x
Notes on Contributors xii
Acknowledgments xiii
PART I
Prelude to a Proposal 1
1 Introduction 3
2 Finding Funding 15
3 Assessing Funding Fit and Feasibility 36
4 Getting Ready to Write 46
5 Focusing the Research Idea as Grant or Fellowship Proposal 51
PART II
Parts of the Proposal 61
6 Writing a Strategic Proposal 63
7 Writing the Introduction/Statement of
Problem/Statement of Purpose 82
vi Contents
8 Writing the Theoretical Orientation and Signifi cance Section 93
9 Writing the Methodology/Procedures/Plan of Work Section 108
10 Writing the Budget and Budget Justifi cation 123
11 Other Proposal Sections 131
PART III
Working With Others 149
12 Interdisciplinary and Collaborative Research 151
13 Funding for Public Scholarship 162
PART IV
From Failure to Funding 171
14 Failure or Success: What Next? 173
15 Resources 181
16 Parting Words for Institutions and Investigators 188
Index 193
Index of Funding Agencies 197
FIGURES
2.1 Higher Education R&D Expenditures by R&D Field: FY 2015 16
2.2 Higher Education R&D Expenditures by Source of Funds and
R&D Field: FY 2015 17
2.3 Snapshot of the Number and Category of Funding Opportunities
in the Humanities and Social Sciences 18
6.1 Visualizing Your Research Project in a Mental Map 68
11.1 Gantt Chart 132
TABLES
1.1 Graduate School Research Funding Chronology 9
1.2 Faculty Research Funding Chronology—Junior Faculty and
New Investigator 11
1.3 Faculty Research Funding Chronology—Junior Faculty,
Midcareer, and Senior 11
2.1 Key Differences Between Federal Agencies and Private Foundations 20
6.1 Visualizing Your Research Project in a Table 68
6.2 Formatting an American Council of Learned Societies Proposal 72
6.3 Formatting a National Science Foundation Proposal 74
9.1 Methods Matrix Tool 109
13.1 Selected Funding Opportunities for Public Scholarship and
Community-Engaged Research 167
BOXES
2.1 Flash Topic: Crowdfunding 24
2.2 Flash Topic: Funding for Academic Arts 32
3.1 Flash Topic: Program Offi cer Viewpoint—National Endowment
for the Humanities 44
5.1 Flash Topic: Program Offi cer Viewpoint—Foundations 58
6.1 Flash Topic: Freewriting 79
7.1 Proposal Excerpt: Introduction From a Proposal for the American
Council of Learned Societies Burkhardt Fellowship 86
7.2 Proposal Excerpt: Introduction From a Proposal for the National
Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant 89
7.3 Introduction Exercise 91
8.1 Proposal Excerpt: Theoretical Orientation and Signifi cance Section
From a Proposal to the Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship Program 95
8.2 Proposal Excerpt: Theoretical Orientation and Signifi cance Section
From a Proposal to the National Science Foundation 98
8.3 Theoretical Orientation and Signifi cance Exercise 107
9.1 Proposal Excerpt: Methods/Procedures Section From a Proposal
to the National Science Foundation 115
9.2 Proposal Excerpt: Methods/Procedures Section From a Proposal
to the American Council of Learned Societies Ryskamp Fellowship 120
9.3 Methods/Procedures Exercise 122
11.1 Flash Topic: Proposals for Meetings, Book Completion, and
Other Research-Related Activities 137
11.2 Proposal Excerpt: Book Completion Proposal Sample From
a Proposal to the National Endowment for the Humanities
Fellowship Program 143
15.1 Flash Topic: Federal Funding Agencies in a Nutshell 185